†S ARKOPHAGUS

Breeded + birthed in the Southernmost realms of Tamaki Makaurau, this malpractice chooses to desecrate the failing & falling institutions of a necropolitical-colonial-imperial-state, acknowledged as “N3W Z3@L@ND” - an extension of a global colonial project of domination and perversion that has consumed and excreted nations. An enemy of the colony and crown, this rūma is not a #safe #space for neither nor its accomplices.

Of the Sacred Houses of Te Aupōuri, Ngāti Kurī, Te Rarawa, Ngāti Rēhia, Ngāti Kahu & Ngāpuhi.

"This rūma operates in honour of our Great Mother of the Night, Hine Nui Te Pō.
The breath-taking One, who awaits our arrival after we leave this earthly realm - beyond that horizon. This rūma once operated as the wharepaku strangely enough, with appropriate wall interventions.
2 egg vessels; on the ‘ground’ of the wharetoi, where our earthly bodies seed from and return.
2 egg vessels; that remember the truth of our first & last breath. This binary of breaths ultimately transcends fictional binaries of biological essentialism and sexual-difference amongst other violences. Slipping the mind of the colonial imagination to its own convenience every time.
2 egg vessels; freshly hatched. But we see one has not quite made it round this time; reminiscent of the shapeshifter Maui, the cause of our mortality here.
The body that is full of life - seemingly nowhere to be found, transmutes into our worlds and in our selves. The way Hinetitama transformed into Hine-Nui-Te-Po.
The way Maui transformed into a lizard in an attempt to conquer death. Transformation, transmutation, transition, transfiguration; moving words.
Too innate, inherent and inevitable to this experience - it can feel like conquering death, without even thinking of it - like taking a breath."